GRALLATORIA. A401 
Our last genus will be that of 
Puenicoprerus, Lin. 
Or the Flamingos, one of the most extraordinary and insulated of 
all birds. The legs are excessively long; the three anterior toes’are 
palmated to their ends, and that of the hind one is extremely short; 
the neck, quite as long and slender as the legs, and their small head 
furnished with a beak whose lower mandible is an oval longitudinally 
bent into a semi-cylindrical canal, while the upper one, oblong 
and flat, is bent crosswise in its middle, so as to join the other 
exactly. The membranous fossex of the nostrils occupy nearly all 
the side of the part which is behind the transverse fold, and the 
nostrils themselves are longitudinal slits in the base of the fossex. 
The edges of the two mandibles are furnished with small, and very 
delicate transverse laminz, which, with the fleshy thickness of the 
tongue, creates some affinity between them and the Ducks. Were 
it not for the length of their tarsi, and the nudity of their legs, we 
might even place them among the Palmipedes. They feed on shell 
fish, insects, and the spawn of fishes, which they capture by means of 
their long neck, turning the head on one side to give more effect to 
the hook of the upper mandible. They construct their nest of earth 
in marshes, placing themselves astride of it to hatch their eggs, a 
position to which they are forced to resort, by the length of their 
legs. The species known, 
Ph. ruber, Enl. 68 (The Red Flamingo), is from three to four 
feet in height; ash coloured, with brown streaks, during the 
first year; in the second there is a rosy hue on the wings, and 
in the third it acquires a permanent purple-red on the back, and 
rose-coloured wings. The quills of the wing are black; the 
beak yellow, with a black tip, and the feet brown. 
This species is found in all parts of the eastern continent be- 
low 40°. Numerous flocks are seen on the southern coast of 
France, and they sometimes ascend as far as the Rhine. 
M. Temminck thinks that the American Flamingo, which is alto- 
gether of a bright red, Wils. VIII, 66, and Catesb. 73, is a different 
species from that of Europe.(1) 
Trans. XIII, pl. xii, f. 2. Add Glar. australis, Leach, loc. cit. pl. xiv, or Glar. 
isabella, Vieill. Gal. 263;—Glar. orientalis, Leach, XI1;—Glar. lactea, Tem. 
Col. 399. 
(1) M. Temminck has positively ascertained that the Flamingo of America is 
different from that of Europe. The latter he calls Phen. antiquorum, but the 
American species Ph. ruber. Am. Ed. 
Vou. I.—3 A 
